Emerging as a reaction against the Industrial Revolution, the Romantic Movement opposed enlightenment thinking, valuing individualistic thought

and subjective experience, seeking understanding and knowledge through the imaginative faculty of the mind and a connection to the divine through nature. The Romantics pursued the ideal in order to form a union with nature and ultimately transcend the limitations of society. This pursuit defined the Romantic Movement and subsequently shaped the literature, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridges poems, This Lime Tree Bower My Prison (1797), and Frost at Midnight (1798), William Wordsworths poem Daffodils (1815) as well as Emily Brontes romantic novel Wuthering Heights (1847), and artworks, such as Caspar David Friedrichs painting Abbey in the Oakwood (1810), of the period. This Lime Tree Bower My Prison represents the ability of the imagination to form a spiritual connection with nature and transcend the confines of society even when a physical connection is absent. This sense of entrapment reflects the major upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, where over 50% of the English populace moved from an agrarian lifestyle to towns and cities over the course of the 18th and 19th century. Coleridge establishes the strength of nature with intense natural imagery while on an imaginative journey. Sibilance emphasises the ecstasy of the slip of smooth clear blue which is juxtaposed to the roaring dell, while his command and kindle thou blue Ocean! reveals the power of the imagination to form a spiritual connection with nature through the control of the sublime, conveyed by imagery of the setting sun. In awe of the beauty of nature, his frustrated tone, This Lime Tree Bower My Prison! is juxtaposed and transformed to the softened voice, this little lime tree bower. He comes to a realisation of his transcendence, evoking the divine with such hues as veil the Almighty Spirit!. Coleridge interacts with the responder through the his dialogue with Charles, encouraging those that have hungerd after nature in the city pent in a direct address to make use of the imaginative faculty of the mind, for thee .. no sound is dissonant which tells of life to show that a true connection to the divine and nature is still attainable. Frost at Midnight reveals the power of contemplation through the faculty of the mind in direct union with nature and therefore with the divine to escape the destructive effects of society. The Industrial revolution separated man from nature, and the Romantic belief in Pantheism sought to restore this connection, believing that through nature man experienced a connection to the divine. Coleridges sibilance imbues the frost with divine purpose and understanding as it performs its secret ministry at midnight. He alerts the responder of the importance of his profound revelation through his intense focus on the film of ash as it flaps and freaks, the sole unquiet thing as it makes a toy of thought. Coleridge reflects upon his childhood and finds it wanting, how oft at school presageful, have I gazed upon the bars as oft with unclosed lids and faults his lack of connection with nature, for I was reared in the great city, pent mid cloisters dim, and saw naught lovely but the sky and stars. He resolves that his child shall grow up under the guidance of nature, learning far other lore thou shall wander like a breeze by sandy lakes and shore and mountain crags. Therefore, he concludes, that all seasons shall be sweet to thee, that his son will not be at the mercy of society. Daffodils represents an extreme union with nature allowing total transcendence of the limitations of society. The Romantic belief in the strength of subjective experience was driven by philosophical revolution, Immanuel Kant stating all experience begins with the senses, proceeds then to understanding, and ends with reason. Wordsworth establishes a scene of beauty, a host of golden

daffodils, that brings him intense delight through their personified movement, fluttering and dancing in the breeze, emphasised by the elegant couplet rhyming scheme. He likens their eternal beauty to the stars in the sky, continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way, the simile emphasising his absolute pleasure with the view. He further conveys his sense of rapture hyperbolically ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance and the daffodils come to symbolise the beauty of nature and life, rich in experience and sensation. Wordsworths change to a more contemplative tone in the last stanza, for when I lie in vacant or pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye, reflects the lack of connection he feels at home away from nature when on my couch, but this is resolved through transcendence with the imaginative faculty of the mind, that inward eye, and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils. This rhyming couplet further emphasises Wordsworths appreciation of subjective beauty that allows a total transcendence of the physicalitys of society. In Emily Brontes eclectic romantic novel Wuthering Heights, Bronte makes use of extensive natural imagery to emphasise the importance of symbolic locations and characters. Her depiction of Heathcliff as without refinement, without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone marks his lack of education and desertion of closely held societal values. The character of Heathcliff is clear reflection of the romantic celebration of individuals willing to abandon social confines and seek subjective meaning from the world. Likewise, we are shown that during Catherines stay at the Lintons, it was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckle, but the honeysuckle embracing the thorn. Her powerful and dominating personality emphasises the importance of the individual to the Romantics. Bronte also makes use of natural imagery to establish the depth of passion and emotion that places Catherine and Heathcliff on another plane of being, that Heathcliffs soul, his and mine are the same, and Lintons is as different as moonbeam and lightning, and that My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary. This idealistic passion embodies the Romantic Movements quest for the sublime, transcending the barriers of society to achieve true love and union with nature. Caspar David Friedrichs Abbey in the Oakwood similarly unites an array of concepts through the gothic portrayal of an abbey being consumed by the natural world. Friedrich explores Romantic concerns through a focus on nature in his landscape. The crumbling gothic ruin is the focus of the artwork and symbolises the slow crumbling of religious belief, being consumed and reclaimed by the battered and gnarled oak trees plunged in darkness and thick during the depth of winter. For the Romantics, religious instruction was at an end, they believed that a connection to god was a subjective relationship forged through nature. This auspicious time, the funeral procession and the gothic themes combine to create a sense of foreboding. Yet the artwork is clear and bright from the heavens, Friedrich manipulating light and dark to create a sense of optimism and idealistic hope for a true linkage with god to be established. This work is a collection of impressions, a cool, dark palette, the crumbling abbey, the symmetrically arranged and twisted oak trees, scattered graves, and the blotchy figures of the funeral procession combine to create a reflective piece that promotes individual and imaginative contemplation upon the nature of life and death and a connection with the heavens. Representative of the Romantic period, these texts, Samuel Taylor Coleridges poems, This Lime Tree Bower My Prison , and Frost at Midnight, William Wordsworths poem Daffodils, Emily Brontes

novel Wuthering Heights, and Caspar David Friedrichs painting Abbey in the Oakwood reflect the concerns of their respective context and as such possess an enduring relevance for the insight they provide into the Romantic Movement. So it can be seen that the Romantic Movement, as a reaction against the enlightenment, pursued individualistic thought and the subjective experience in an attempt to transcend the barriers of rational thought imposed upon them by society.